James Spillane
The old saying that you can’t please everyone all the time means that sooner or later you will receive a negative or even downright nasty comment in the comment section of your blog. Because of this, it is a good idea to prepare now for how you will handle that situation.
There are a few ways you can respond to a negative comment on your blog. You can simply delete the negative comment, respond to it, or completely ignore it and let it sit on your blog page.
So what is the best way to handle a negative comment?
Your company could be minding its own business and all of a sudden a disgruntled customer (or an unscrupulous competitor) leaves a comment on how your product didn’t meet their expectations or they did not like your customer service employee, or their product arrived a day late, etc.
What will you do? Well, what you should do is respond. But how you respond is very important. You do not want to get into an argument or tell the customer they are wrong to feel the way they do.
There is a 3 step process you should follow if ever you encounter a negative comment on your business blog.
1. Thank them for their feedback. Make them feel appreciated and respected when you comment back to them. Never lose control of your emotions by staying polite and professional throughout your comment. If you thank them for commenting they will feel heard and appreciated which is exactly what they are looking for more than likely.
2. Do your best to answer their concerns and questions. Provide facts that back up your response so that others who read the conversation will be able to check out whether what you are saying is accurate or not. If the facts are on your side, then always present them in the comment. If you or your company was wrong they you absolutely must apologize for what happened.
3. Invite them to contact you personally. Give the disgruntled person your email address or phone number and invite them to contact you directly to discuss their problem further. This prevents them from leaving more negative feedback directly on the page and it also helps you resolve the issue to the best of your ability.
If an individual insists on being negative or rude repeatedly in your comment section after you have done your best to reconcile the issue it is up to you whether you will continue to allow this person to comment. You have to do what’s best for your company and it would be faulty logic to let someone destroy your company’s name if they have no reason to. Sadly, sometimes your competitors will do this. We have seen this happen where a main competitor of one of our clients is constantly leaving negative comments about them in order to try and ruin their reputation. But the general rule of thumb is to be polite, kind, and professional throughout all your interactions with your customers. It looks good for your company and it can quell bigger issues from developing.
Co-written by Peter Geisheker and Alanna Monical
The Geisheker Group Marketing Firm
http://www.geisheker.com
This article was written for Business 2 Community by James Spillane.
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Excellent advice. It’s so important not to get angry or defensive.